Can someone help on naming conventions.

What do you guys/gals do for naming databases, tables, queries, etc?

Thx

I name them what they are.
No prefixes, please....

Ok gr8, no prefixes.

How about capitalization?

bad idea -- name everything in lower case

captalisation can cause problems especially if you are working in a mixed Microsoft/Linux environment, some advocate not to use capitals but to capitalise the SQL eg SELECT my, column, list FROM mytable

theres numerous naming conventions out there. some peopel try to apply the Simonyi style notation (eg strThis, intThat and so on).. I'd argue there is no requirement to do so within the tables, within your application code its probably a good idea especiallyif you are using

Personally I prefer capitalising eg MyVariable, rather than myvariable.. for me its easier on the eye, easier to read. some advocate underscore eg tel_no, which I just think is ugly

however the one thing you can say on naming conventions is be consistent. if there is already a naming convention use it.

another thing to bear in mind as part of your convention is common abbreviations and perhaps just as importantly give column & table names a consistent name

eg TelNo in place of TelephoneNumber.. so NUmber should always be abbreviated in the same manner
Address is Addr and so on

some give the table name a plural eg you'd have a table products, rather than product

but be aware of any reserved words such as Desc, Name, Integer Date and so on.

style generic columns as say ID (for numbers), Type for text/char, dont include the table name eg in a table called products don't have a column called ProductID, have one called ID. if you prefer use ProductID where that value is acting as a FK to the ID in Products

But ultimately pick one that exists or develop one that meets your style and your requirememnt

frankly I suspect some of the naming conventions are more to do with individuals ego at seeing their name associated with a specific naming convention. it doesn't matter what you use, the real advantage of using a convention is that its easier to pick up your own work at a later date, or pick up someoone else's work.

++1 .

Seriously? I use CamelCase for readability.
CamelCase - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But the, you're just going to alias the crap out of everything anyway, so what do you care what its real name is?

yes, seriously

i'm guessing you've never used a non-microsoft operating system?

i mean, camel case is fine, don't misunderstand, i like it, but it's nothing to build a convention on, much less "best practice"

and aren't you the guy who disdains aliases?

If you use mixed case then use tools that let you develop and test in a case-sensitive manner.

This is possible in Microsoft environments too. Even SQL Server 2008 has intellisense with auto-completion. In SQL Server you can make names case-sensitive and in C# they are by default.

I prefer case insensitive. The CamelCase is for my benefit, not the server's or the application's.

pffffffffft!!! you're just the DBA, wtf do you know

ask your developers what they prefer

you might be surprised

I'm sorry. Are you referring to the bootlickingtoadies, or the BootLickingToadies?

OK, I just asked all my developers, and they prefer CamelCase, saying that all lower case is difficult to read.

lower_case_separated_by_underscores